Makhraj is the place a letter comes from. The plural, makharijul huruf, is often the first lesson when a reading needs to be settled. The aim is simple: a letter should sound like itself, before anyone talks about melody.
Five regions usually introduced first
A first lesson usually divides the places of articulation into five. The tongue has the most detail, and it does not need to be memorised all at once from an article.
- Al-jawf, the empty space of the mouth and throat, for the madd letters — alif, waw, and ya — when they are lengthened.
- Al-halq, the throat. Deepest: hamzah (ء) and hāʾ (ه). In the middle: ʿayn (ع) and ḥāʾ (ح). Nearest the mouth: ghayn (غ) and khāʾ (خ).
- Al-lisan, the tongue. This is where most letters live. Qaf comes from the back of the tongue against the roof of the mouth; kaf is a little further forward. Lam, nun, and ra use the tip of the tongue in different shapes. The rest is learned step by step with a teacher.
- Ash-shafatan, the two lips. Fa touches the inside of the lower lip to the edges of the upper teeth. Ba, mim, and waw all use both lips, but they do not close and open in the same way.
- Al-khayshum, the nasal passage. This is where ghunnah, the nasal hum, is heard on mim and nun in certain cases. Mim still begins at the lips, and nun at the tip of the tongue. The nose adds the hum. It does not replace the letter's place.
Practice that is safe to try alone
- Choose one letter, not a whole page.
- Listen to a teacher, then repeat slowly, without a tune.
- Record yourself and compare. Your own ear is often kind to a letter that is still mixed.
- If the throat starts to hurt, stop. Slow and accurate is more useful than loud.
An article cannot hear you. A letter that feels right in your head is often still unclear to a listener. That is what Tahsin Privat is for, and, when you want a passage heard, Tashih Tilawah.
The notes above are a first map, not a tajwid manual. Length, merging, and the rest belong with a teacher, not with a conclusion drawn from this page alone.